February 21, 2012

There's an annual event that everyone seems to think is crucial yet few look forward to enduring and that is the annual performance review.

This delightful 30-60 minute meeting consists of a discussion of how one of the people in the room has performed their duties for the past twelve months.

Some companies engage in a form that is to be filled out by the employee prior to the meeting and then reviewed with their manager which is a far cry from daily leadership.

Summarize and Generalize

The time spent on strengths is often paled by those items that require more attention or the weaknesses. And if you ask most people, they would agree they should work on getting better at what they don't do well.

For most, the performance form is filled out shortly before the meeting. Then the results are neatly placed into the employee’s file to be viewed in another year.

If you own your company, you don't have the luxury of an annual performance review because that happens every day in the form of client feedback - or worse, no feedback - followed by lost revenue.

Customer Measurement

Do they wait a year, send you an appraisal form to fill out to mark yourself on various aspects of your product and customer service then sit with you to discuss? No, they often don’t even complain if they are unhappy with your offering. They just leave. Or worse, tell everyone about the experience through the social channels.

So have a look at your team, your business, your offering, your organization and decide whether you are waiting for the feedback or being proactive to ensure superior internal customer service within a social business model – which includes regular discussions about performance and strengths versus the annual review – and greater external customer service.